A Music Thread [Joe Mannix]

I love CDs and have a large (for me, anyway) collection of them. I like the physical format. I like the jewel cases and their various colors. I like the liner notes. I like being able to pop a disc into the player, kick back, and leaf through the notes while I listen. I like the album art, too. Of course, you also get all of this with records and tapes, but I like CDs because the sound quality is high and reproduction is perfect when I make copies.

Something has changed in the past few years when it comes to the cases. The CD tray in the jewel case normally contains an embossed logo like the one you see at the top of the page:

But the norm is changing. I have purchased some more recent titles new and noticed that the disc trays in the jewel cases have changed. They still have a very subtle blanking surface in the right place, but it doesn't contain the logo. It's just a blank molding cutout:

Why did this happen? My guess is that the manufacturing for jewel cases is now bottom-dollar on old equipment, and the new operators aren't paying the small fee to use that logo in production. In other words, the format is in its final decline. The CD party that has lasted for around 40 years - a long time, by the standards of music formats - is about to end.

So what is the future of my favorite format? I don't know. Probably a lot like records are today: band merchandise. Limited edition products produced as collectibles from the get-go.

Exceptional live performances
Sometimes a live performance is a real stand-out. This performance of "This Tornado Loves You" by Neko Case led me to buy a couple of her albums because I really liked her voice. I found that, as much as I want to, I don't really like Neko Case. She has a great voice and a competent band, but I just don't really like any of her songs. Oh well. This remains a great performance from the Letterman show:

Great covers
Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates fame) really knows how to retire. He did a series called "Live From Daryl's House" where he plays with other artists. He did one of these with Scotland's KT Tunstall and one of the songs they performed was the Bonnie Raitt standard "Something to Talk About." They killed it and I think this is a great version of that song. This clip includes a fair amount of preamble, so jump right to about 1:30 to get the song:

Cool music videos
I like music videos and some of them are pretty cool in their own right. The video for "Do I Wanna Know" by the Arctic Monkeys starts out as a simple waveform line and adds color until it shifts into increasingly crazy and somewhat psychedelic animation. I think it's clever, visually interesting and well done.

Arbitrary picks from my collection
In no particular order or implications of quality, here are four songs I've heard recently.

Garbage - Deadwood
This isn't off an album, but is a B-Side from the "I Think I'm Paranoid" single. I always thought this one should have landed on an album.

Muse - Thought Contagion
I am not a huge fan of Muse's more recent work since it is much more electronic than I like, but a lot of it remains thematically interesting, and this song fits into that category. I think it's about social media. Your mileage will, of course, vary.

Stone Temple Pilots - Lounge Fly
This track wasn't of any note on the album "Purple." It wasn't a hit single and it didn't find use in tons of TV shows and movies at the time, but I like it.

Dwight Yoakam - Ain't That Lonely Yet
The woman did him wrong and he ain't going back.
Once there was this spider in my bed / I got caught up in her web / Of love and lies
I like this one. It's simple, tells its story, gets the job done, is well put together and has some nice lyrics.

Enjoy your Saturday evening and I hope the rest of your weekend is lovely!

posted by Open Blogger at 07:30 PM

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